The Fawcett Avenue Conscripts are a group of table-top wargamers who get together every Thursday night to enjoy some gaming, some beer and a few chuckles courtesy of our hobby.

Thursday, July 6, 2017

An Old Beakie With A Big Gun

Rogue-Trader era heavy weapon marine with lascannon

We will be playing another game of Warhammer 40k's new 8th edition this week, and my dusty old Crimson Fists will be putting in another appearance on the gaming table. The setting will shift somewhat, from the familiar nostalgia of Rynn's World and the "Battle At the Farm" to the world of Toxo IV, our sort of go-to setting for general 40k mayhem. I don't recall exactly when our use of this name started - seems to go back to at least 2009 - but we thought the name was kind whacky and did its own bit to convey the warped darkness of GW's far future.

So Toxo IV will be the setting of an encounter between Dallas' foul Chaos renegades, backed by some even fouler Nurgle types, against an Imperial task force that will feature Crimson Fist Space Marines and some Imperial Army types - this is a set-up we have used previously and it has always been fun. We are going to scale the game up a bit more this week, and bring out some vehicles.

The studded shoulder pauldron, a classic emblem of old Space Marine figures from Citadel/GW

The presence of tanks, and even worse, Nurgle, means my Marines will need a little bit more punch. A lascannon would sure come in handy...and then I see this guy, who has been sitting, primed, in the pending pile for like four or five years! I rushed him through the painting table late last night, as the weather has finally been nice, and the days in Winnipeg are very, very long right now, and I find myself staying up very late anyway, so it was easy to finish off.

Unique venting system, no backpack on this fellow! Makes it much easier to pose the heavy weapons.

This figure is old school, a pewter Space Marine heavy weapon trooper of the Rogue Trader era. There is no finer Space Marine figure than the originals with the "beakie" helmets, and metal figures are always the best, so man, was it fun to crank out one of these classic gems. I don't have many of these left in my collection to paint, and they are getting harder to find online, so it was a real treat to relax, put on old music and put the brush to this old, old casting.

You can see the size of the contemporary decals vs. the size of these old castings...looks kind a funny, but I'll take it for now

These old figures had so much character. One thing that stands out for me with this guy is how he has a unique venting system on his armour, so he does not wear the ubiquitous power armour backpack, leaving more room to swing that big gun around.

Ready for gaming action with his Crimson Fist battle brothers!

I tried to use some decals to mark him out, but of course the scale creep on the decal side has far outgrown the original Rogue Trader era figures - and this is particularly pronounced with Space Marines, as GW's Marine decals have always been too large, even for the later plastic figures (although I suppose they would fit nicely on those hideous Primaris Marines). I have attempted the odd freehand Crimson Fist symbol, but wasn't up for this time. So I went a bit wacky using the decals, and put the chapter symbol on the leg greaves instead. He's got a big cannon anyway, so he can do what he wants, right?

Lascannons always come in handy, so hopefully this fellow will be able to blast a renegade tank or Plague Marine with it!